MUMBAI: A special civic-run COVID-19 vaccination centre for transgenders and those from the LGBT community was inaugurated on Tuesday in Vikhroli in Mumbai, an official said.
In the first few hours of the centre, located in Saint Joseph School under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) N Ward limits, being operational, some 100 transgenders and LGBT community members received vaccine doses, he said.
Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope, who inaugurated the centre, said on the occasion that preventing the spread of diseases like COVID-19 in a city like Mumbai, with its geographical location and population, was very challenging, but the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had handled the situation effectively.
In a statement, the BMC said the N Ward-run centre would be operational for the next six months, with jabs being given even to those without identity cards, and asked NGOs and other groups working with transgenders and LGBT community members to encourage vaccination among them.
Those with queries on the centre could contact N Ward 'war room' on 022-21010201, the civic statement added.